Chapter Text
Day 256, Year 3218 — Water Palace
This was exactly what Jules and Bernadette the Hedgehog needed at the moment.
With its amazing views of the ocean and white buildings covered in luminous blue architecture, it made the perfect spot for tourism, as well as its nearby cities like Windmill Isle, its small buildings provided the finishing touch calm to the place.
Jules was an average inhabitant of South Island, meeting Bernadette after she made a trip to the island from Station Square. She had great ambitions in the medical field, like most mobians from the big cities, while Jules had always enjoyed the more down-to-earth scenario of the natural environment.
This meeting evolved into a series of journeys back and forth, from the city to the island, and soon enough, they were in love, and it had only been a year, but they were both ready to take the next step, which is why Jules decided to spend this time of the year on a small one-week holiday on one of the most beautiful places of Mobius.
“I didn’t know you could afford a whole trip like this,” said Bernie. Right now, the couple was walking back to their local motel after their breakfast at one of the nearby bakeries of the location. This was brought up previously, but now that they were actually in the place, it felt more surreal now that they were experiencing it.
“I didn’t know either, just got enough for the stay,” Jules replied, holding her hand.
“Yeah, how did you do it?” An honest question, with some lighthearted approach to it.
“Got some help from a few friends,” he said while rubbing his quills, some discomfort creeping in when admitting to it. He had been saving up for a special occasion so he could pop the big question, not like it needed a complete trip to another continent in one of the most popular tourist spots. But not like he had any regrets either, being with Bernie was worth every coin and ring.
Once they reached the lobby, Bernie proceeded to do the light re-check-in and get the keys to the bedroom, and as she was doing it, Jules leaned against one of the walls with his mind racing on many things, watching Bernie’s lavender fur, her blonde strand of quill, with her gorgeous dress, only made him nervous about the upcoming activities. They had a standard itinerary with some average sights, but his mind was still up in the air as to what exactly he was going to say or what the mood should be like.
As his mind continued lingering on these thoughts, he began hearing a commotion outside, odd sounds that caught his attention, and Bernie’s, too, judging by her reaction.
Jules decided to walk out to investigate the sounds, followed by Bernie out of curiosity. As they left the building and into the streets, the sounds became somewhat clearer; they were screams, from far away but still recognizable, and not only that, but they could spot smoke rising up in the distance. Was this an unexpected fire? An explosion? Well, it was an explosion, but this was no accident.
Another roar of fire was heard much closer, enough to startle them both.
“Jules, get inside,” said Bernie in a whisper. Now people could be seen running away from somewhere, or something, but neither of them could see what. Jules walked further, trying to see if he could spot a better angle at anything that would give more context, but they didn’t need to look around or below to get a better view. “Jules…”
Bernie pointed upwards, to which Jules followed, revealing a figure in the sky, floating with very little movement, other than large maroon, pulsating cubes surrounding them. They couldn’t distinguish it from where they were, and it’s not like they should be getting any closer. Those cubes were being thrown all around the place, and that’s where the explosions were coming from. It didn’t take time at all to figure out what was happening; this was an attack.
“Jules, get inside!” Bernie repeated, and this time, the blue hedgehog listened to the command, running back to the motel, which was the only safe place in their mind, but the explosions and the screaming now were intensifying to the point where more people also came in, taking refuge in the motel lobby.
“C’mon!” Jules instructed, rushing to their room, which was on the third —and final— floor of the locale, which would allow them for a better view of what was going on.
“Jules, what is happening?” Bernie asked, holding tightly to Jules' arm once they reached the room. Looking out the window, knowing the answer to her question was unknown. Jules was just as confused as she was, they kept staring above for the figure who could be seen zooming around the skies with no specific pattern, it was at this moment where Jules realized that staying close to a window with explosions going around was not a good idea, so they retreated back away from it while the sounds from the outside kept their pace.
It took a while before those sounds went away completely, at that point, they both returned to the lobby, testing the waters of the scene, and slowly headed outside, watching many more apply the same behavior as them. Everyone was confused and didn’t know what had transpired; however, they were about to get their desired answer.
They all felt a large shockwave, but not by an explosion; it was more like a large wind followed instantly by a booming voice that could be heard from every direction.
“You all live in an illusion,” were the first words that could be heard. “Look around you, tell me what you see? Destruction? Anguish? All I see is the truth, and from here on now, it is what you will see.”
The words moved around the location; it was impossible to see where it was coming from, and people were still retreating back into buildings as if to hide from it, but Jules feared that wasn’t gonna make it go away.
“I am here to take what’s mine, and then the war will start… You are not useless to me, but I am always above all of you. My name is Infinite, and you'll remember that name for ages to come.”
No more words came after that, but the silence of the streets remained; it was as if the voice still remained, and despite the confusion of the attack being explained, all the vague words still left questions, not knowing if this was symbolism or literal. Neither Jules nor Bernie knew who this Infinite was, or what he even looked like; all they saw was the flying figure… A flying mobian, it didn’t even register at first due to the sheer absurdity of the moment.
“Jules, what do we do?”
He didn’t know either; they could go back to the motel’s room and reassess their emotions, or they could venture deeper into the city to get more answers. Jules looked at Bernie; her eyes were searching for an answer in him, and for a moment, it felt like going back was not the response; staying inside a room after such an event was only going to shelter them… They had to know, and this Infinite person seemed to have gone away for now. No one knew if he was returning, if he was, no one knew when, but the skies cleared out, and that was the sign.
Jules let out a final nod, indicating that they had to walk forward, in the direction of where the smoke and heat grew in intensity. A path that led to the center of the city, where the majestic golden palace was located, along the way, you could see who was affected and who was trying to help, an image that caused Bernie to shake as she held tightly to Jules’ arm. The destruction didn’t seem to be strategic; all you could spot were random buildings destroyed, while some of them were barely touched.
The palace of the place —and minor adjacent buildings— was also barely damaged, which was the only positive image they encountered. In fact, by now, Bernie instinctively reached out to the nearest individual in pain, who was a cat sitting down on the sidewalk, who was holding on to her left arm, probably with some injury.
“Are you okay?” She said, crouching down to her level, Jules slowly followed, but maintaining distance to let her do whatever work she needed, which he sensed wasn’t going to be much, considering the fact that she didn’t have any equipment in hand, not even a first-aid kit. The cat didn’t respond at first, just staring blankly in surprise at the sudden arrival of an unknown hedgehog, which Bernie seemed to notice. “My name is Bernadette.”
She introduced herself with a soft smile, expecting a reply from the confused cat.
“Nora…” she responded.
“Are you hurt?”
Another small pause.
“Just a small bruise, it’s okay, thank you, uh… Bernadette.”
“What happened here?” Bernie transitioned to her next question. This zone looked like it had been the epicenter of the attack; maybe she could give a bit more context.
“I don’t know… this jackal came down and started firing at everything,” she said, shaking her head, recollecting the events. “I think he was wearing a mask and he had these white tendrils…” She stopped there, only saying that there was an attack out of nowhere, describing how horrible it all was. It seemed that the speech that they received was going to be the only context any of them would get.
After scouting the streets and sharing the company and stories of others, Jules and Bernie had no choice but to return to their current room, which contained a small TV, as it was common, and hopefully any news broadcast would shed some light on an external point of view, and it did. It basically confirmed the fact that this was an unprovoked attack by the individual who calls himself Infinite.
It also conveyed more info that the United Federation was considering this an act of aggression, mentioning that they would reply back to. How so? It was vague, but it didn’t take a genius to understand the type of situation they were in. Water Palace had just been invaded.
And they had to leave as soon as possible. It wasn’t night yet, they did spend a couple of hours on the streets, but not that long, they could catch a flight back to Station Square if they packed up everything and rushed to find transport as fast as they could, which is exactly what they did. But after such an attack, they weren’t going to find vehicles that easily; in fact, the streets all around the motel were devoid of mobians. It was easy to assume no one wanted to leave their interiors.
Regardless, the couple spent their time finding a transport, and when they did, the response from the driver was not a pleasant one.
“Airport? Really?” He had said as if it were a stupid idea. “Sorry, that place was destroyed in the attack.”
Of course it was, it made perfect sense to blow up a way to leave the continent, and that probably meant that aquatic means were also out of the question. They asked a few more times as if that would change the airport’s status, but they knew that they were going to have to go back to the motel for another night before they could think of something else, or what to do under an attack like this.
-X-
“Jules, I’m scared.”
Had said Bernie once they completed the check-in process once more, returned to their room and had unpacked everything they had just arranged for leaving, although the room didn’t look like it had been cleaned up by the clerk, maybe he knew they were bound to return, but regardless, they were locked out of the main options of leaving Water Palace, there had to be a solution, it simply wasn’t going to be the most straightforward…
And Jules was scared too.
He wasn’t going to admit that, not in front of Bernie, either; he had to be bigger than that, always come up with the plan that would be the solution, and right now wasn’t the best time to show weakness
“It’s okay, Bernie,” was his response as he held her tightly while on the edge of the bed. “Nothing’s gonna happen.”
Some words of reassurance never hurt, but he never would have imagined that they were about to be in the heart of one of the biggest conflicts Mobius had ever encountered.